continuing to transfer inmates to out-of-state prisons through June 30th and slowing their rate of return;

and leasing and retrofitting private prison facilities, which would be operated by state prison guards.

The state would also look to reduce the inmate population by:

increasing credits that can be earned by minimum custody inmates and non-violent second strike offenders so they can be released earlier;

expanding the medical parole program to include “offenders who suffer from a significant and permanent condition, disease, or syndrome resulting in the offender being physically or cognitively debilitated or incapacitated”;

and considering parole for low-risk elderly inmates who have served lengthy prison terms.

“[The state] will take the unusual step of drafting legislative language for these measures and will submit that language for the legislature for its consideration. Once the draft language is submitted, obviously it will be up to the legislature to determine whether the language should be introduced as a bill and advanced through the legislative process,” according to the state’s court filing.

“There is simply no way that we could meet the court’s number by the end of this year without adding more responsibilities on the counties, jeopardizing realignment and adversely affecting the public safety,” Beard explained. “Our hope is that will be suitable for the court and as we move forward.”

The 137.5% of design capacity cap, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011, was ordered by a three-judge panel as a result of two lawsuits – Plata v. Brown and Coleman v. Brown – that linked California’s severe prison overcrowding to the denial of basic medical and mental health care to prisoners, inflicting unnecessary suffering in violation of the Eight Amendment which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.”(When the three-judge panel first heard considered the lawsuits in 2006, California’s prison system held 162,500 inmates or 202% of design capacity.)

To alleviate the prison overcrowding, California Gov. Jerry Brown initiated the so-called “Public Safety Realignment” in October 2011. Under realignment, the state has shifted the responsibility for incarcerating and the parole oversight of low-level or non-violent felons to county governments, thereby allowing the state to focus on incarcerating serious and violent offenders.

“This is an unprecedented undertaking – something that has not been done before in California, and something that has not been done anywhere in this nation,” said Beard, who testified for the prisoners seeking population reduction and access to care in 2008. “I am speaking the truth today when I say that this is a different system. This is a system that is delivering quality care – a constitutional level of care. Any further forced reductions in our population is both unnecessary and unsafe.”

Overview of CDCR’s plan to meet the court-ordered 137.5% design capacity cap by December 2013: